When Historic Preservation Alum Jon Pliska (MHP ’07) first embarked on a survey of the White House Grounds, it was expected to be a six-month assignment. For about three years, Jon had been working with the National Park Service’s (NPS) Historic American Landscape Survey—or HALS—as a contracted “landscape historian,” a cottage industry born from his bachelor’s degrees in history and biology, and raised during his time in graduate school at UMD.

Since the year 2000, the University of Maryland School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation has been providing research and study opportunities for students and faculty at Stabiae, an important ancient site near Pompeii in the Bay of Naples, Italy. The beautiful Roman villas that lined the shore of this seaside resort, a favored destination of the Roman elite, were buried by over seven meters of volcanic ash with the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD.

Dr. Casey Dawkins has been appointed director of the Urban Studies and Planning & Ph.D. programs at the University of Maryland (UMD). Casey has been an associate professor of UMD’s Urban Studies program and a research associate for the National Center for Smart Growth since 2011.